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        FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
                Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator

Contents:
  Re: homebrew tuning [for sweeter beer] (Dr. T. Andrews)
  Re: filtering also book recommendations (Michael Eldredge)
  special ingredients (Tony Burgess)
  Megastout (Robert Virzi)

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Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 6:46:51 EDT
From: Dr. T. Andrews <tanner at ki4pv>
Subject: Re: homebrew tuning [for sweeter beer]

I don't know where Dave Line got the idea to add saccharin to
home-brew.  Sure, it won't ferment.  Neither will dirt.

Besides the unfortunate health effects, the stuff tastes very
bad, and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.  Avoid it like taxes.

If you want sweeter beer, add more crystal malt.  It doesn't
ferment very well, and so it leaves sweetness and body in your
beer.  It also tastes good.

                                        Dr. T. Andrews, Systems
                                        CompuData, Inc.  DeLand
--
...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner  ...!bpa!cdin-1!cdis-1!ki4pv!tanner
or...  {allegra killer gatech!uflorida decvax!ucf-cs}!ki4pv!tanner

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Date: Wed, 07 Jun 89 10:11:07 PDT
From: dredge at hitchrack.STANFORD.EDU (Michael Eldredge)
Subject: Re: filtering also book recommendations

> Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 11:06:24 PDT
> From: Dave Sheehy <dbs at hprnd>
> Subject: homebrew tuning
> Full-Name: Dave Sheehy
 
> Sweeter Beers
> 
> My taste in beer runs towards the sweeter varieties. I have been unable to
        ...
> to retain a sweetness in the flavor of their beer. I've now realized that 
> they must also either pastuerize the wort to kill the yeast of filter the 
> yeast out to avoid additional fermentation. I suppose that their beer might 

 There is an interesting article in the (reprinted) All Grain Brewing
 special issue of Zymurgy.  Most Homebrew shops carry the reprint.  The
 full article is about building your own 10 gal.  brewery.  But one of
 the ideas is of particular interest.  The authors describe a
 filtration system.  Briefly, secondary fermentation is done in 5-gal
 coke cannisters fitted with a pressure release valve.  The valve
 maintains a constant 5-10psi over pressure.  When primary fermentation
 is complete, an empty cannister is filled with about 5psi of CO2 and
 fitted with the pressure release valve.  The full cannister gets CO2
 input at 10-15psi (ie:  about 5psi higher.  The output is connected to
 a filter which is connected to the second cannister.  Open the values
 and carbonated, pressurized beer flows from the secondary fermenter
 through the filter and into the new cannister all nicely filtered and
 the added bonus -- no priming.  The beer is naturally carbonated; it
 is never allowed to go to zero pressure.

 So they maintain that filtering is very easy.  Plus the added bonus of
 natural carbonation.  If you already have a cornelius tap system, the
 additional cost is minimal (hose, a few couplers and the filter and
 maybe another cannister).

> Good Book Past "Papazian".
> 
> I have bought and read Papazian's book on home brewing. I also have
> David Line's book, Brewing_Beers_Like_Those_You_Buy (mainly because it
> has a recipe for John Courage). The question is what is a good book that
> takes up where Papazian's book left off?

 I believe a good sequence of reading is:

        Byron Burch  "Brewing Quality Beers"
                        (a good "get starter" book)
        Papazian      "TCJoHB"
        Miller          (starts slow, but really gets into it)

 Then, just for fun, borrow Noonan.

 dredge

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Date:         Wed, 07 Jun 89 11:44:50 EDT
From: Tony Burgess <BURGESS%vm.epas.utoronto.ca at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject:      special ingredients

Hi. Though I've been getting the digest for six months or so, I haven't been
able to brew this year, so, not having had much to say, this is my first
posting.
  A few months back someone asked about the possibility of replacing hops with
a related plant renowned for its narcotic properties.  I tried this once, with
mixed results.  We made a batch of Papazian's Propensity Pilsener, replacing on
e ounce of boiling hops with an ounce of the aforementioned narcotic herb.  The
good news is that the narcotic properties transferred perfectly.  The bad news
is that it was practically undrinkable.  The taste was utterly foul and
completely unfamiliar.  By adding a few (6 or 7) drops of pure hop extract to
a beer just before drinking it, we were able to make it palatable.  Here are
the mistakes I think we made.  We should have made a much more full-bodied and
flavorful brew (though not too alcoholic, of course), and we ought to have
increased rather than decreased the amount of hops used, so as to obscure the
awful flavor of the other herb.  Those are my suggestions for anyone who wants
to try this.  If you do, please let me know how it turns out, as I will be
trying it again in the fall.

A slightly more ambitious approach, if you have a green thumb, is to graft a
hop shoot onto the root of its friendly cousin.You will produce a truly
extraordinary hop plant, at least according to a book I was reading recently
on the subject.  A benefit to this is that hop plants do not arouse the hostile
instincts of law enforcement officials.

A final note about yeast: I have come to the conclusion that yeast quality is
the single strictest limiting factor in determining the quality of your beer.
I therefore no longer use anything but liquid yeast (I get it by mail order
from William's Brewing, P.O. Box 2195, San Leandro, CA 94577).  I am convinced
that it is far, far superior to ANY dry yeast on the market.

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Date: Wed, 7 Jun 89 15:00:30 EDT
From: Robert Virzi <rv01%gte.com at RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Megastout

Okay, I'll bite.  Can someone with the Zymurgy recipe
for MegaStout please post it for those of us who don't
subscribe.  Any brew with that much punch has got to be
worth trying at least once.

Bob Virzi
rv01 at gte.com

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #171, 06/08/89

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